Most people aren’t very responsible with their e-mail. It can be especially difficult to get a response from really important people… who can easily get 200+ emails per day when they only have time to respond to a handful. But if you write e-mails using basic principles of psychology and direct response copywriting, you can greatly increase your chances of hearing back from a big shot.

Inbox Psychology

Professionals open their inbox hoping to see messages bearing good news or leading towards money. But what they usually see is an avalanche of spam, unwanted social media updates and newsletters, and long-winded requests for people wanting something for free.

A hypothetical e-mail to a busy tech blogger, following the advice below.

Important people tend to delete or wait till later (meaning “never”) to handle almost all messages except 1.) very simple messages and 2. messages they are obligated to respond to. If you don’t know the person well, keep it as simple and scannable as possible!

Professional E-mail Writing Tips for a Better Response Rate

Choose a headline that communicates either “painless” or “possible benefit.” If your e-mail has some angle that could genuinely benefit the recipient, allude to that in your headline. If not, I’ll frequently ask just one question and use the headline “Quick question”. This makes it seem painless enough to open or respond to.

Keep the copy short and spaced out. Aim for 5 sentences or less. Seriously. Add a line of space between each sentence or main point: don’t smash it all into one intimidating block of text.

Make a personal connection. If you can show that you know about the person and you’re up-to-date with what they are currently working on – it makes it harder to dismiss your e-mail as irrelevant. If you’re in the same business, you love their company or use their product, or if you admire a specific piece of work, or you’ve been to their town or country before… don’t be afraid to quickly mention that.

Say what’s in it for them. Let them know how helping you can also help them – if possible – but don’t stretch the truth so far that it’s absurd.

Use bolding, italics and underlining to make the main points “pop.” This makes an e-mail much easier to scan quickly and digest the main points. I like to save the bold for my main request or question… and use the italics and underlining to draw attention to the main supporting points.

Ask only one question or favor per e-mail. The more questions you ask, the less chance any of them will be responded to. Try and slim down your requests to the most crucial one. If you get a response to the first question, then you can follow up with with a second.

Specifically ask for a response. A call-to-action in the text that specifically asks for a response implants a psychic suggestion that makes it harder for them to ignore you. Something like “I’d really appreciate your reply, either way” at the end gives them wiggle room to say no, and it will greatly boost your response rate.

Include your full name, website and phone number in the signature. Important people will often want to find out a little more about you before responding or saying “yes” to something. Having some information about yourself makes it easier for them to feel like they’re responding to a real person.

If you don’t get a response, wait 7 to 14 days and keep trying again until you get one.You can send the message as is, again. Or quote the whole thing and ask a micro question like “Any thoughts?” or an ambiguous statement like “Thanks“. Thanks is a sneaky way of saying “Please respond now” while sounding grateful. Keep going every week or two until you get a response of some kind. You may have to try 4 to 8 times before they finally have a moment to get back to you.

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That’s what has worked best for me!

What are your own tips and tricks for increasing the response rate of personal business e-mails? Please share whatever you are thinking in the comments below!

Ad agency copywriting is often so unorthodox that it’s ineffective. While agencies manage to pump out some pretty decent TV commercials that catch my attention using quirky and irrational premises, the same techniques doesn’t work nearly as well in the written word.

The current ad agency fashion is copywriting that is so self-aggrandizing and sarcastic, it borders on psychotic.

The current trend I’ve spotted in print ad agency copywriting is what I call cocaine monologue copy – a sarcastic, exceedingly casual personal “rant” injected with strong personal opinions and observations. It’s copy where the writer gets drunk off their own “clever” brillance by making puns, while disregarding the reader’s own desires and interests.

Here’s an example of this style of copywrtiting… verbatim, from the product label of my zero-calorie orange Vitamin Water sports drink:

if you ask us, its no coincidence that ‘morning’ and ‘mourning’ are only one letter apart. ok sure, there are a few good things about mornings (we’re looking at you, pancakes). otherwise, forget it. not only does a 15 minute snooze pass in what feels like a blink, but let’s be honest, the sound of birds chirping is a bit over-rated. so to help give your morning some nutrition, we added 120% of your daily value of vitamin c per serving plus some other key nutrients we think’ll brighten up your day. but don’t worry, not rip-open-curtians-with-no-warning kind of brighter.

vitamins + water = all you need

nutrient enhanced water beverage

What’s Wrong With This Copy?

In my opinion:

It has improper, all-lower-case capitalization. If you want to be casual in copywriting you should do it with your words and your tone. The sturdy linguistic conventions of capitalization and punctuation aren’t good things to mess with. It doesn’t look casual, it looks like a communication signal that is amatuer and shouldn’t be trusted – right from the start.

It starts off focused on the writer, not the reader. By leading with “if you ask us” – it sounds like the copy is about to launch into a rant or a personal diatribe – which it sure does. Don’t scare readers off by “telegraphing” you’re about to launch into your personal opinions. Readers are they’re interested in “what’s in it for me” – so focus on that.

It tries too hard to be ‘clever.’ It makes a pun between ‘morning’ and ‘mourning’ and suggests that mornings are grim and dreadful. While the analogy helps set the stage for how the product can cure these blues – the cleverness doesn’t help sell anything. (It mostly just helps pump up the writer’s ego.)

It sarcastically assumes the reader has the exact same taste the writer does. The copy boldly asserts that pancakes are one of the few good things about mornings, otherwise “forget it.” Well.. I don’t personally care for breakfast pancakes – the combination of refined white flour, butter and sugary syrup is a recipe for a stomach ache and a sluggish + unproductive morning. And if someone were to say “We’re looking at you, pancakes” I think I’d have a hard time not laughing at them. By assuming that I like the same things they do – when in fact I have distinctly different taste – I feel turned off. It diminishes trust and credibility in the copy. That defeats the purpose of the copy being there in the first place.

It ignores the lifestyle of the target audience. The lament about “how quickly the 15 minute snooze button goes by” might sound brilliant to the other 9-to-5 employees at the ad agency they all hate working at. But I don’t relate. I’m a freelancer with no alarm clock. And much more importantly, I’ll bet some of the target market for Vitamin Water are athletes who like to wake up early and train before work. My advice: focus on the people who are likely to purchase sports drinks and appeal to them. “Bottle” your own prejudices.

Features and benefits are discussed last. It’s good to know that the drink contains 120% of my daily allowance of Vitamin C. But I wish they’d put how it can help me and brighten my day up towards the top, rather than buried it under their sarcastic personal opinions. I also wish they’d name the the “other key nutrients” it contains, rather than casually alluding to them. I want to believe that drinking this tasty Vitamin Water is good for me… enough so that it justifies the asking price and me buying it again and again. Convincing me of this is the product label copywriter’s job, and they didn’t convince me here.

The headline and tagline are on the bottom. The headline (“nutrient enhanced water beverage”) is great, except for the capitalization. The tagline (“water + vitamins = all you need”) is the most compelling equation and concept in the whole rant… so they should put it at the top. This is the standard, expected convention for headlines that has existed long before the invention of the printing press. Breaking it isn’t cutting edge or trendy, it’s ass-backwards.

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What Do You Think?

What are your own feelings on this Vitamin Water copy? Did it resonate with you or not? Does it have an effectiveness or charm that I was oblivious to?

Am I ironically guilty of any of the sins that I called out, here in my own blog prose?

The world has changed shockingly fast in the past decade. Technology that was standard just 10 or 20 years back seems like it was from another century.

1. Before YouTube… there was “America’s Funniest Home Videos”

This 90′s television smash-hit, based on a Japanese show, kicked off user-generated video content in America. People submitted home videos of babies with nail guns, dogs on fire, and grandmas falling down, in hopes of winning a weekly cash prize.

2. Before Twitter… there was IRC.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a UNIX-based system of chat servers that was introduced in late 1988. A series of networks and thousands of channels allowed people to “tweet” about various topics, share cool links, and offer technical support. Twitter now offers a somewhat similar experience with a more user-friendly interface and mobile support.

3. Before blogs… there were ‘zines.

If you wanted to delve in the world of personal publishing in the early 90′s, it was pretty spendy. Desktop publishing with Adobe Pagemaker required investing big bucks into a high-end Mac and a state-of-the-art laser printer. Most young people stuck to cutting and pasting scraps onto blank paper and then xeroxing the final product.

4. Before podcasts… there were codelines.

In the 90′s, when digital voice mail was a cutting-edge corporate technology, there was a vibrant voice mail hacking scene. Phone phreaks from all over the United States would sequentially “scan” 1-800 exchanges for voice mail boxes (VMBs) and use default passwords to take over employees’ (unused) voice mail boxes. They would record long informational greeting messages, known as “codelines.” Codelines began with music and “shouts out” to other phone phreaks and then segued into first-generation “podcasts” packed with underground content: freshly hacked calling cards and credit cards, conference calls PINs, and global outdial passwords.

5. Before blogrolls and comments… there were web rings and guest books.

Sites on similar subjects used link out to each other in a promotional circle jerk called a “web ring.” Guestbooks used to be the hot way to leave comments, until bots were developed to harvest the e-mail addresses for the the worst kinds of spam imaginable.

9. Before the iPhone… there was the PayPhone.

And if they wanted to make a long distance call, they’d need an entire roll of quarters. The 90′s equivalent of an “unlimited calling plan” was a toll-fraud device called a red box. Red boxes were modified Radio Shack touch-tone dialers that made the same sound a Bell payphone made when a quarter was inserted. By the end of the decade, Radio Shack had discontinued the device and Bell had upgraded to digital equipment. Thankfully, cellphones were becoming affordable, mainstream communications devices by then.

10. Before BitTorrent… there was Columbia House Records.

Before DRM and iTunes – people downloaded music from Napster and burned it on a $569 external CD-R drive. Non-technical people who wanted free tracks got tempted by magazine ads that promised “Get 8 CD’s for Just One Penny!” and they were unwittingly signed up for recurring CD subscriptions. Then they got slapped with a huge bill afterwards – the old-school equivalent of an RIAA settlement.

11. Before Craigslist personals… there was the men’s room wall.

Local newspapers would only publish “vanilla” dating ads. So, how did geeks and other shy people manage to hook up? The restroom wall, of course! Gay guys would post phone numbers and set meeting times for man-to-man encounters. Straight dudes would post the numbers of their ex’s and innocent girls they wanted to harass.

12. Before Digg… there was your local newspaper’s “Top Stories of the Year” issue.

You used to have to wait until December to find out hottest story of the year. And the news stories were picked by crusty old editors. Now there’s an infinite stream of high-quality, uncensored content and entertainment – all just a mouse click away.

Dear loyal fans and subscribers…. I am excited to announce that SocialMediaRockstar.com is evolving to a new brand called “Copy Brighter.”

It’ll have the same author, the same quality of content you’ve come to expect – but it will have a wider focus on online marketing and communications. In addition to social media… I want to also explore things like copywriting, conversion optimization and creativity. I’m convinced that these are the most profitable skills in internet marketing… and I’m going to dig deep and share some original insights with you.

Copy Brighter is the beginning of a new chapter of my life, following my passion & dream

So just stay tuned to the same RSS feed (it won’t change) – and if you’re browsing on the web just drop by CopyBrighter.com

Why I’m Expanding Beyond Just “Social Media”

In 2006, I decided to become a professional internet marketer. I’d registered this site – copybrighter.com – because my passion was copywriting (“copy”) and creative stuff (“brighter”). But I couldn’t find a job doing online copywriting for landing pages – I couldn’t even find local companies that had even heard of it. So I took a job as an SEO analyst at an agency. I tried to be open-minded & adapt my internet marketing dream to the company’s goals… but I soon discovered that working with spreadsheets and link analysis tools all day wasn’t my bliss.

To kill the pain, I started to dabble in social media. I started to get my content on the Digg home page and crash web servers… and I got hooked on the creativity and the huge adrenaline rush. At that time, there were only a small handful of social media experts and blogs to compete with… and the smart ones were making big bucks. In 2008, I sensed social media was going to become the “next big thing” so I started SocialMediaRockstar.com to get in early and build a consulting practice.

My intuition was right, social media blew up in popularity. But the explosion became “too much.” Too many comments, too many friends, to much Twitter chatter, too much noise for one human brain to cope with. And also too much competition – every man, woman and child with a Facebook account was now a social media expert. I discovered that my real authentic self isn’t a “social media guy,” either. I didn’t really enjoy all the 24/7 networking and chit chat… it made it hard to focus and get work done. What I enjoyed the most about social media was studying the psychology of it and writing about it. I love writing. And I hope to write a lot more high-value internet marketing content for you.

Let’s Take It To the Next Level!

Your response to this blog has been overwhelming and it has exceeded anything I had imagined. Thank you for your subscriptions, for your retweets and for your thousands of comments – and for your patience and understanding as I embrace my authentic self and follow my dream. I’m going to a whole new level authenticity and insight… and I hope you’ll stay and share the journey with me!

Please feel free to leave any comments or re-connect below. I’d love to hear what your own new direction / focus / passions and projects are!

Social media has broken out of the underground and into the mainstream. And while personal social media literacy rates are rapidly rising, awareness of how to use social media tools for business and marketing campaigns is still very murky.

1. Social Media Marketing is Easy

Actually, social media marketing is a lot of hard work. You have to find, filter, create and share content constantly… schmooze smoother a social butterfly with 36 heads… and do lots of time-consuming favors for people. The pace of the social media world is like a busy bar or restaurant: fun to visit, but stressful and demanding to work in. If you’re not willing to constantly read, learn, solve technical puzzles and socialize with people – you’ll just be treading water and going nowhere.

2. Social Media Marketing Works Overnight

Actually, social media marketing usually takes months or years of persistent effort before you reach any kind of successful plateau. Your first dozen blog posts are probably gonly gonna get read by your mom, and you may get few comments or kudos. It might take you 6 months to crack 1000 Twitter followers, but once you get some moment… things start to spread exponentially. This blog only had 400 subscribers the first 6 months, but by 18 months it crossed 6,000 RSS subscribers. Social Media Rockstar now gets comments and new subscribers even when I don’t post on it. Don’t give up before the miracle happens!

3. Social Media Marketing is Free

Actually, social media marketing costs a lot of your time and/or money. You can do it yourself if you’re willing to spend hundreds of hours interacting with people and making chit chat, or you can save some time by hiring a consultant who has already put in the hours and can share shortcuts and personal connections. People who really know their social media are going to be busy and in-demand, and they’ll charge for their fleeting time accordingly.

4. Social Marketing Works Well for Any Type of Business

Actually, social media works best for certain types of products and services – and not-so-well for others. In Seth Godin’s excellent book Meatball Sundae, he explains the metaphor of the meatball being a boring / ordinary product – and the whipped cream and cherrry on top being “new media marketing.” So the combination of taking a meatball (i.e., lawn chairs or life insurance) and adding some social media toppings – (http://Twitter.com/AwesomeLifeInsurance) – isn’t got to be that appetizing or successful.

Social media marketing works best for remark-able products that are of great interest to heavy social media users (think: Facebook apps, Web hosting plans, 4g mobile phones, technology conferences). For more traditional products, and you can expect low-to-moderate interest unless you find a breakthrough and ultra-creative angle.

5. Social Marketing is Typically High ROI

Actually, most people and companies are remunerated quite poorly for all the hours they spend on Twitter or Facebook. Only a small elite make huge money from social media marketing. For many companies, it is usually wise invest a significant part of your web marketing budget in higher return-on-investment (ROI) tactics: SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click) marketing or CRO (conversion rate optimization) - and slowly supplement this main course with social media juice.

6. Social Marketing is Best Handled by the Intern

Actually, Social media is really easy to screw up. Who do you want to be the public voice of your brand: a hungover sorority girl intern, an outsourced guy in Uganda with satisfactory English skills, an mid-level marketing manager having a midlife crisis – or you, yourself? It’s quite easy to offend people and stir up an online reputation problem, damage your company brand, or make a costly mistake (i.e., picking the wrong wording for your company Facebook fan page, which can never be changed — or forgetting a password and locking yourself out of a key account .) A better option might be to get initial guidance from an experienced social media professional, and to let your intern or assistant follow their guidelines.

7. Great Content Sells Itself

Actually, great web content often laungishes about… unseen and unshared. Great films never win an award. Great bands are passed over by music industry exces. Total garbage makes the bestseller list, and it hits the Digg home page too. Social media is a popularity contest – probably even more than Hollywood is. It making relationships and paying attention to other people, so when the time is right, they’ll pay attention to you and your content. You should expect to make a lot of friends and do a lot of favors for them, first…. before they’ll be willing to check out your stuff.

8. Social Marketing is the Hottest New Trend

Actually, the “golden era” of social media marketing was from 2006 to 2008. Audiences were far less jaded and self-proclaimed experts were few. Starting around 2009, exponentially more people (like myself) started to blog and tweet about social media – making it expoenentially more difficult to stand out. Now social media users’ brains and eyeballs are quickly becoming jaded and fatigued. Only the best of the best content, and most charismatic (or narcissistic) personalities can crack through all the “me too” the noise and rise to the top.

Actually, it won’t do much of anything without something to say to the world. Having a Twitter profile or Facebook fan page is like having a cell phone. Everyone has one, and you having one too isn’t going to make special or popular. You are required to be an interesting conversationalist. Social media is about making connections with real people, which usually takes intensive real human interaction and TLC. Don’t believe that slapping a Twitter widget at the bottom of your company web page is a “social media strategy.” A blog or social media button is just a basic tool, and if you believe it’s going to get you popularity and trafic without ongoing effort – you’re a social media “tool,” also.

10. Social Media Buzz = Sales and Income

Actually, social media is a very indirect form of marketing. Most people who visit your websites or social media profiles will never buy your products, check out your services or click on your ads. People are naturally self-centered, especially when they’re surfing the web. Most of the people you make a connect with will eventually drop you as a friend or forget about you – but a small number of the people will loyally return, pay attention, comment… and even fewer will buy your stuff. The best you can do is search out niches where you can get better targeted traffic and raise the quantity (of new content and promotional efforts) so your-1%-of-visitors-who-become-buyers adds up to a bigger bottom line.

Did I leave any out common social media myths? Please add to this list in the comments below!

There are tons people in the social media scene who talk a lot about “community”… and there are a quiet few who work hard at building sustainable online communities. Joshua Dorkin is an independent online publisher and community manager in Denver, Colorado – who runs the real estate investing community BiggerPockets.com.

Josh shares tips for building an online community and tells how he grew the site to almost 50,000 members:

Please tell us about yourself and your online community?

“I’m an online publisher and real estate investor in Denver, CO. Five years ago I started out in real estate investing… I and was looking for a great resource to help me find the tools and info I needed to help me with my business. I couldn’t find any site that fit my needs, so I decided to start building my own.

Joshua Dorkin supports his family by running an online social community from home.

I began to build the site while working my full-time job as a teacher. Soon after launching our forum, people began to participate… I immediately realized then that the site could become more than just a hobby site for my own personal needs. I spent all my free time coding the site and expanding the directory of resources, and soon launched our blog. Eventually, I hired my first coder and began to really start building the site into what it is today – a full-featured social network, with tools and applications targeted to real estate investors, professionals, aficionados, and the every day homeowner / renter.”

Did you have experience running online community sites before? How did you learn?

“I learned how to run it though trial and error, and from watching what other forum sites did. There was a lot of experimentation in the early days as to how to run the site, and I made plenty of mistakes and pissed off more than my fair share of people while doing it. Overall, I learned by doing.”

How does your site make money?

“The revenues are primarily from advertising. While Google AdSense is a great driver of ad income, we also do direct sales of banners on our site and newsletter. Additionally, we participate in a select few affiliate programs. Partnerships with other businesses are also very important drivers of revenue, as are our paid membership upgrades, and a little bit of e-commerce.”

Presently your site has over 48,422 members. How did you get such a big crowd?

“The most exciting member was number two. It was very exciting to know that someone other than me was on the site . . . I felt a sense of success, and saw the potential for people to start pouring in. The first two years were very shaky. The community hadn’t reached any kind of tipping point, and it seemed that the site could either flourish or fail at any time.”

What were the most successful strategies that helped increase signups and strengthen the community?

“I believe that the strict administration of our site has helped it be so successful. I’ve spent time on other real estate and non-related communities, and I see that the sites that are strongest are those who clamp down and enforce some set of rules or guidelines. It is so easy to be lax, but in the end, that doesn’t work. People are always looking for some angle to exploit for the purpose of marketing, and if you allow a free-for-all, your community will result in chaos.

Other important reasons for our success in growth has been the passion of our core members. Any strong community will always have that core group, and they can easily make or break a site. This group usually consists of influencers, and often times, those influencers are quite powerful. Sadly, in many cases, this power can get to their heads; I’ve had to remove many of these people from the site over the years. Mostly, they always got the idea that they were above the rules and started to take advantage of the site. While the community respects them in general, by allowing these members to stick around, you undermine your entire system. All that said, we’ve learned to keep this type of behavior in check and have come to depend on the core group of members to help other, new members out and promote the site. Their passion is evident and catchy.

Throw all that together with lots of activity, tons of great content, and fantastic membership, and the community simply grows on its own now.

What are the biggest headaches?

“Spam is certainly a problem with any kind of community, but we’ve managed to develop some pretty good processes for identifying and removing it. Actually, one of the best moves we made on that front was to empower the members to report posts and other content on the site. I’ve found that the general membership does not want that crap around, and usually find it before we do. We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to spam.

Spam and community disagreements can be a major headache. image: jk5854

The last major headache is disagreements between members. We allow members to disagree with one another – these often result in some of the best discussions, but when people begin to get personal and attack one another publicly, we put a stop to it. We try and bring these people together to resolve their issues in private, but you can’t always make that happen. In that case, we simply let these people know to avoid one another. We’ve got many members who were participants on other sites, but decided to leave and join BiggerPockets because they know that we won’t tolerate that public bad-mouthing that goes on elsewhere.”

A lot of times people will join a community and never even upload an avatar, let alone any content. What’s the best way to improve participation?

“I think the best way to improve participation is to have a team that is welcoming and friendly, and to always connect with new members. We make it a policy to welcome new members and to remind them of the benefits of completing their profile and participating. Often times, people just set up an account and plan on coming back later, but forget and move on. The welcome serves to let them know not to forget about us, and to get going for their benefit. Otherwise, having that strong core group of members, who also remind the newbies to get a picture and profile together, definitly helps.”

Say someone was starting an online community today – what are two or three things you’d advise them?

“The first thing I’d advise is to get an understanding of how online communities work before getting started. Jump on other sites and get a feel for them. While I did it through trial and error, you can learn by participating. I’ve seen dozens of sites come and go over the years for this reason alone. I’d also advise making sure you’ve got the time, or that you’ve got people who have the time, to manage and remain active in the community. Countless communities die because there is no one to actively manage them. Doing so is not easy – in any niche, there are only a handful of truly successful communities for this reason alone.

The last bit of advice I’d offer is to do good. When other upstart communities have done bad things to us (steal content/members/etc), in the end, they failed. Karma is a real bitch sometimes.”

What are your professional goals for the future? At what point will you know you’ve ‘made it’?

“Given that I’ve managed to build the site without a real, full-time team of employees or any kind of startup capital, I’d have to say that I’ve already made it. Does that mean that I’m satisfied with what I’ve built? Not even close! I’ll know that BiggerPockets has truly made it… when anyone and everyone who deals with real estate knows that we’re the place to be.”

Warning: Facebook constantly changes their software rules without warning — and the advice in post may not work anymore. Many users have reported problems following these procedures – see the comments. Use this advice at your own risk!

Love it or hate it, Facebook is currently the biggest and popular site on the web… except for Google. It’s ranked #2 by Alexa and it has over 1.5 billion inbound links. Because it’s such a powerful site, having a well-branded, SEO-optimized vanity username or Fan page URL on Facebook can be a big boost your business and online reputation.

Facebook Username Length & Guidelines

Usernames must be 5 characters long and may be no longer than 50 characters.

Usernames can only contain A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and periods (.)

Your account must be e-mail and SMS (text message) verified before you are allowed to set or change usernames.

Facebook says you cannot register usernames and try to resell them for money, or they will disable the username (or your account) if they find out.

How Do I Set My Facebook Username (Vanity URL)?

When you’re logged into your account, type the following URL into the browser bar:

http://www.facebook.com/username

Then follow the on-screen directions. They tend to show a lot of suggested usernames with periods in them, and you may have to click the “more” button to type in the one you really want. Check the availability, double-check your spelling (don’t type in “JohnSnith” instead of “JohnSmith“>), and then confirm the name to lock it in for good.

How Do I Change My Facebook Username?

1. Click on the “Account” dropdown menu at the far upper right of your screen. Then select “Account Settings” from the drop-down menu:
2.) Click on the button to change your username:

How Many Times Can I Change My Facebook Username?

You are only allowed to change your username once. If you have changed your name once already and want to do it again, you’ll have to register and SMS-verify a new Facebook account. (Maybe buy one of this disposable, prepaid cellular phones for $29.99?)

Someone already registered my choice of username. If they change it to something else, can I claim it? Can we trade Facebook usernames?

Notice: The information in this article was true at the time it was written (February, 2010). Facebook changes on a monthly basis and this information PROBABLY WON’T work the same in 2011 or 2012. I have gotten several reader comments saying that they tried this method and it doesn’t work anymore. Don’t try and change or give up a name unless you are 100% okay with losing it permanently.

Yes. It is possible to trade and exchange Facebook usernames. From the tests that I personally conducted (on 2/19/10)… it seems that the second you change your Facebook username to something else, your old username immediately becomes “up for grabs.” If someone else registered as “JohnSmith” and you can talk them into changing to another name.. the moment they change and confirm it, you can grab “JohnSmith” for yourself.

Here is a video I found on YouTube that demonstrates how to transfer / trade Facebook usernames:
(warning! cheesy music)

How Do I Set A Vanity URL for a Facebook Fan Page?

Facebook Usernames URLs are best for individual people. Facebook Fan Page vanity URLs are better for collective interests like: companies, organization, bands and products. Once your fan page has 25 or more members, you are eligible to set a vanity URL for it. Here’s how:

If I registered a personal Facebook username/URL and now I want to change it to a fan page URL. Is this possible?

The solution that I find works best to transfer your custom url/username from a user profile to a Fan page is to first create a new Fan page for your business. Once you have created the new Fan page then migrate your user profile to a Fan page. Be sure to read Facebook’s help FAQ before migration https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18918 then begin the migration https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate. Once the migration from a user profile to a Fan page is complete Merge your Fan page with the new Fan page you just migrated from a user profile to a Fan page. Again be sure to read Facebook’s help FAQ https://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=duplicate before merging your duplicate fan pages.

Can I Change the Name of a Facebook Fan Page?

No. According to this thread, you cannot currently change the name of a Facebook Fan page. If your company is called “Extreme Print Design” and you have a Fan page for it, and you legally change your company name to “Extreme Web Design” – you still cannot change the name of your fan page. You have to make a new fan page and start over.

Can I Change the URL of a Facebook Fan Page?

No. Once the fan page URL has been set, there is no way to change it. Not that I know of.

Disclaimer: Facebook has complex, not-user-friendly, constantly evolving interface! The information in this post was true at the time of writing, but i is very likely to change in the coming months or years.

Because I’m 100% convinced that managing and improving your ( clients’) online identity — or online reputation management – is the most important and financially lucrative skill a social media professional can have in this new decade.

Online reputation management (ORM) requires learning a combination of advanced SEO, PR and social media skills that are worth top dollar in today’s competitive market. And subscribing to my new blog will give you a powerful, inside edge on the best practices of this fascinating new industry.

Social media is fascinating and fun. But when it comes time to write the checks, most execs and companies still continue to see Twitter, Facebook and videos as expendable “creative luxuries.” In contrast… companies absolutely need a good online reputation to thrive & survive — and they know it. So they are willing to budget for online reputation consulting without skimping or flaking.

That’s why I plan on publishing so much informative and high-quality content about online reputation management (ORM) in 2010. If you’re a serious social media consultant, PR pro, or SEO… you can’t afford to be in the dark about about the vital topics and discussions that are happening over at Online Reputation Edge.

I’m still planning monthly updates, interviews and social media tips here at Social Media Rockstar. And because I’ve really enjoyed the fantastic connection and conversations with with my loyal readers here, I really want to keep in touch with you over at my new blog also.

Social media is quietly forcing an integration of “work” vs. “play” into the mainstream business culture. Networking and socializing used to be quarantined into special times and locations – like conferences, power lunches, and parties. But now virtual cocktail hour and watching cool videos have been integrated into our desktop, inbox and phone with apps and constant reminders that keep us distracted connected.

Some companies, consultants and HR administrators are stubbornly resisting social media as an encroachment and liability. And others are guzzling the social kool aid until they’re blasted out of their mind… and then drowning after jumping headfirst into the deep end of it.

The Dangers of Too Much “Work”

Working hard doesn’t always mean working smart. Especially in the fickle, light-speed digital era. Grinding away on a product or project without being dialed into up-to-the-minute news — and without being closely in-touch with the people in your market (a.k.a. “community”) — can be less productive than smoking bong hits or making paper airplanes.

You’ll miss connecting with ideal partners, employers and clients. If you’re too busy filling out T.P.S. reports and thinking of your bosses needs more than your own, you’re bound to miss out on some amazing people and opportunities that could have unfolded.

Your professional brand will fade into obscurity. All that blogging, Twittering, commenting and networking does help you “stay afloat” in the noisy world and remind people you’re still alive and in business. Without enough social media pulse, people may forget about you.

You won’t be able to predict the future.If your nose is always pointed at your inbox and it’s never sniffing about for interesting new trends, you risk becoming obsolete very quickly.

You’ll burn out and suffer productivity loss.If you work too much and don’t integrate it with a little bit of fun and spontaneity, you’ll wear down your batteries and the work you complete will be dull and uninspired.

You won’t get “big ideas” or see “the big picture.” Sometimes all those funny stories, random links and technological chit-chat can all add up and stimulate your mind towards a huge personal or professional epiphany.

The Dangers of too Much “Play”

The myth that enthusiastic social media use will — somehow, someday — lead to success + profits is quite pervasive. It’s kindled by a few highly-visible “rockstars” who appear to spend most of the day Twittering, partying and flying around to speak at conferences – and they make it seem so easy. But in reality, they’re just as rare as professional surfers whose day job involves riding waves on exotic islands while getting their picture taken. For 99.9% of people who surf, that’s just a pipe dream.

You’ll get too consumed with doing favors for other people. The more people you have in your network, the more you get “sucked in” doing favors that will help them but don’t pay any direct dividends for you. You can easily spend all day scratching people’s backs and not watching your own.

Your stress and anxiety will rise.Procrastinating your profit-producing work to take care of all your endlessly-time-consuming social media obligations can be very stressful. You can dig yourself in such a deep productivity “blackhole” that you’ll keep distracting yourself as an anesthetic, rather than climb out and get back to all the work you’re behind on.

You’ll become jaded. Too much indulgence in social media chatter and events is like eating too many frosted chocolate doughnuts. You’ll become sluggish and clouded, and you’ll be too stuffed with “junk” to notice the few rare gems that pass right on by you.

You’ll never make your “big idea” actually happen. Social media can give you great ideas, and it can also take away the time and focused attention you need to make them a reality.

Social Media Success = Vigilance, Self-Awareness and Balance

Social media unlocks both a multi-verse of new opportunities, and a minefield of new opportunity costs. The freedom and choices granted by social media tools come with demands for more responsibility: being accountable and self-aware about how you spend your time. And being clear about your goals and staying focused on the specific people and tasks that will help you achieve them.

Here’s a video of a short presentation I did on the history of social media. It traces the evolution of social media back from phone phreaking in the 1950′s, to the BBS’s and online services of the 80′s, to the real-time mobile web and social collaboration tools of today.